Stephen Dyer of Innovation Ohio is a former legislator and is currently the most astute analyst of the legislature’s efforts to undermine public education.
In this post, he describes the legislature’s current approach to vouchers.
He writes:
Yesterday, Ohio’s legislature passed their COVID-19 emergency package. And while there were some much needed and positive things in it (no standardized tests this year, no report cards), the bill also settled the contentious debate over what to do with next year’s EdChoice perofrmance-based voucher program.
A bit of background. Next year, due to legislative changes, 1,227 school buildings would have been labeled by the state as “failing”. Families with students in those buildings could therefore receive publicly subsidized private school tuition vouchers to leave these schools. The problem for districts is the way this program is funded, the state removes state revenue meant for the students in the districts and instead provides a private tuition subsidy — an amount that on average is abot $1,300 more per pupil than the student would have received from the state if he or she had remained in the school district. This forces many districts to use local revenue to make up the difference.
Also, it is obvious that more than 1/3 of Ohio school buildings are not “failing” students, as the current 1,227 building calculation would conclude. And legislators on all sides of the aisle agreed that the state report card that made this determination is fatally flawed.
However, families were gearing up by Feb. 1 to request vouchers for next school year based on the expanded school building list. The legislature put off that deadline to April 1 and included $10 million in state funding to help offset the cost of increased vouchers. They were hoping to hash out a plan to address this issue before that date.
Then COVID-19 hit and everything changed.
The solution included in yesterday’s bill was essentially freezing the number of buildings at this year’s 500+ buildings, and limiting new vouchers to siblings of current recipients and incoming kindergarten students, as well as any 8th graders who want to take the voucher in high school.
But it’s all based on this current school year’s building list — which is still about double the amount of the 2018-2019 school year, but is far fewer than the 1,227 it could have been.
This solution also did not include the $10 million state infusion to help districts cope with the increase in vouchers.
So the immediate question became: Will this “freeze” really be a cost-neutral freeze on the program? Or do we still need an infusion of state cash to offset new vouchers?
Looking at the data, it appears we could be looking at an increase in voucher funding next year, but it could also be cost neutral. It all depends on how the math works out.
According to the latest state funding printouts, there are currently 3,264 kindergarten voucher students. In addition, there are an average of 2,324 voucher students in 12th grade this year.
The kindergarten students cost $4,650 per year. The 2,324 12th graders cost $6,000 a year.
When advocates of vouchers assert that all children should have the “same choices” as rich people, they are lying. The private schools that Trump, Gates, and others of their wealth choose do not charge $6,000 a year. They charge $30,000-$60,000 a year.
Ohio is offering a subsidy to religious schools, including to children who have never attended a public schools. These schools do not necessarily require that teachers are certified. The education they offer is typically inferior to public education.
Ninety percent of the children of Ohio choose to attend public schools. Their legislators ignore them.
“The problem for districts is the way this program is funded, the state removes state revenue meant for the students in the districts and instead provides a private tuition subsidy — an amount that on average is abot $1,300 more per pupil than the student would have received from the state if he or she had remained in the school district. This forces many districts to use local revenue to make up the difference.”
They did the same thing with charter funding, which means it’s deliberate.
The Ohio legislature and national ed reform lobbying groups write these privatization laws, but they don’t fund them- the shortfall in funding is subtracted from each public school student who remains in the public system.
They sacrifice the kids who attend the unfashionable public schools to fund the schools and students they prefer- private schools and private school students.
It’s deliberate. If they actually funded the voucher programs it would be expensive so they simply take the funding they need from every public school student in the state.
I appreciate the word choice, “unfashionable” over that endless mantra of “failing.” It has been overwhelming for years hearing those who think they know (but who truly do not) about big inner-city public schools using the most derogatory terms for those schools.
Here’s the ed reform response to the fact that tens of millions of public school students are not in school:
“My hope is that there would actually be state exams this year. This is not based on a heartless desire for testing in such trying times. Rather, it would mostly be a sign that things are, at last and perhaps miraculously, starting to return to normal. ”
Their single concern about public school students? Whether or not our students will be TESTED this year.
We have thousands of people who supposedly work full time in “education” who are of no practical use to public school students. They act solely as professional full time critics of public schools and public school students. That’s their only role, and they utterly dominate the Ohio legislature.
If you live in Ohio you are paying thousands of ed reformers in state government who return no real value to students in public schools, because they are ideologically opposed to public schools. You’re all paying for this.
Start hiring people who support public schools and public school students. Stop hiring people who are opposed to the schools 90% of kids attend. It’s really that simple.
https://fordhaminstitute.org/ohio/commentary/state-testing-report-cards-and-coronavirus
The CDC and White House have sent out a mailer trumpeting “President Trump’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America”.
We got this in the mail yesterday and I showed it to my high school age son as an example of “capture”- when a government entity becomes corrupted and no longer serves the public but instead serves some other private interest- in this case the private interest is Donald Trump.
Aren’t they embarrassed as physicians and scientists to produce this nutty, cultish propaganda?
It’s appalling. Why are they so afraid of President Trump? They’re really that weak-willed as individuals they can’t refuse one of his orders?
No one is working for the public. They’re all busy serving President Trump.
“President Trump’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America”
OK. First, the mailer contains good advice, so clearly it didn’t come from IQ45.
Second, it’s sickening that even the CDC has to kowtow to this cult of personality. What are we, China during the Cultural Revolution?
Third, “for America”? Really? Did they think that we might be confused and think that these were instructions for the people of Senegal?
The public school system here are doing a pretty good job responding to this emergency without any help at all from the state or federal government.
At this point my most fervent wish is ed reformers continue to ignore and neglect public school students and families while we’re in crisis.
The last thing we need is a professional corps of public school critics setting policy for public schools in this crisis. They can just stay away. Thanks but no thanks. Please don’t “help” us.
“Their” legislators are religion-driven like William Barr (Ohio’s heartbeat bill). The Ohio Senate President is Catholic. “Their” governor, who has 8 kids, reportedly, took his oath of office on 9 Bibles. Fordham and the Koch network praise Catholic schools. Most voucher money in Ohio goes to Catholic schools.
The goal for a theocratic colony contrasts markedly from a conclusion that the population is being “ignored”.
But, we can move along as if the decision makers are ill-informed and inert to the point of allowing ALEC and Fordham to make policy. We can move along as if the over-arching agenda is limited to profit-taking. We can ignore the political arm of the Catholic bishops- the state Catholic Conferences.
You are correct about who wins the vouchers. The state approved schools for receiving vouchers in Cincinnati are Catholic, with a small proportion of other Christian schools several Montessori programs, one option for Jewish students. My analysis was for the last school year. Our elite Catholic high schools and private K-12 schools are not on the list of voucher-eligible schools. Most have tuitions in excess of $25,000 (plus extra fees).
Thanks for the info.
Catholics are answerable for Catholic school chains tailored to minority students that operate far differently than their prestigious counterparts.
Melinda Gates was educated in the Catholic system A 2015 study found students in religious schools were “meaner” than their counterparts in public schools. It’s not a surprise that Melinda married predator, Bill Gates.
Making taxpayers complicit in separate and unequal schools reeks of theocracy.
Vouchers, Espinoza v. Montana, and the Remaking for Political Purposes of U.S. Schools:
https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2020/02/05/bobs-ayahuasca-school-for-little-cosmic-voyagers-and-bobs-real-good-florida-skool/